This invention relates to improvements relating to friction welding. In particular the invention concerns a component holder, or tooling, for holding components to be welded, especially, but not necessarily exclusively, discs or drums to which blades are to be frictionally welded to make blisks or blums for a gas turbine engine.
It is known that two components, even metal components can be welded together by reciprocating at least one of the components and urging the components together, the frictional heat generated between the components melting the material of at least one component, and more usually both components, so as to form a friction weld. A technique and apparatus for frictional welding of this kind is described in co-pending patent applications GB 9309824.2 and GB 9309865.5. One example of a technical field in which friction welding is currently seen as having useful applications is in the field of fabricating blisks and blums for compressors or turbines for aircraft engines. Compressor assemblies may comprise a blisk (blade plus integral disc), or a blum (blade plus integral drum) which is effectively several blisks joined together.